The Great Heroine, Caroline Forbes
by Ms.Dawes
Summary: Series of connected one shots in an AU universe where human Caroline works for Mystic Grill, owned by Alaric and her introduction to the supernatural world.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Series of connected one shots in an AU universe where human Caroline works for Mystic Grill, owned by Alaric and her introduction to the supernatural world.

A/n: hello all, i have decided to write when the inspiration strikes and the inspiration for this series struck me late night i decided to give it a go, this is going to be a series of one shots, small chapters detailing Caroline as waitress in Mystic Grill and her adventures. It's an experiment, drop me a review and let me know whether i should continue...thanks.

**Raspberry meringue Pie**

'He's here again...' Matt said in her ear, carrying past the last load of dirty dishes to be washed. She looked out behind the bar's counter and Matt was right, 'he' was here again.

She can already hear the taunt coming from Matt, but rushed to cut him off because she's in no mood for casual banter. Her shift at the grill started at six a.m. and it was already midnight now, she'd been working on pure auto pilot for the last hour and half 'It's kind of late, i presume you're going to be closing up tonight since our boss in nowhere in sight?'

Matt paused mid dish washing to look over at her in his white t-shirt was stained with the days grease and his brow heavily soaked in sweat, 'Uh, Ric was pretty sure he'll be back before then, so I hope not... hey why don't you go and ask your crush what he wants... it's twenty minutes to closing time already.'

Caroline Forbes felt her face flush a healthy red for a minute, not an unbecoming look for her but there was a fiery undertone to it, something Matt was well aware of which is why he did not turn to watch her punctuate her defence, 'I do NOT have a crush on the window- booth-guy, nor have i ever behaved in a way that would show I'm in anyway I'm sweet on him, you need to stop saying it or your ass is grass'

'My ass is grass ?, Oh come on Care, how can you not have a crush on 'him', you get all school girl clumsy when he shows up, i swear to god, if me and Ric weren't around to make sure, you'd probably be necking with him on the counter faster than we can say 'you're momma would be ashamed'.'

She rolled her eyes knowing it was no use trying to state her case, Matt Donovan and Alaric Saltzman had a ridiculously overprotective streak when it came to her and any guys. It was almost as if they had 'third degree' set in their minds by default for any guy she showed an interest in. Not that she was showing an interest in any...yet, anyway.

'Well, I'm technically still in school...'The clean dishes were multiplying faster than he could clear them off the counter, 'Yea...but you've been physically out of college for the last year and a half, i can't believe the sheriff's alright with you dropping out'

From the corner of her eye she saw that every pie dish was empty and squeaky clean waiting to be filled up again, she looked over the day's leftover and found the last piece of raspberry meringue pie, plating it and turned around to answer Matt 'Of course she is, I'm a strong individual and I've got my own life free of any constraints...'

'Constraints...like higher education, a college fund and a place to live...you're right, i can see the dream now' He said sighing dramatically, Caroline smirked, wondering if she would ever live down her crap-tacular youth in this town, 'For the last time my mom did not kick me out...' she repeated, because it was in her nature to bullshit every her way through misfortune every now and then.

'That's' not what it sounded like when you came bawling to Ric in his office ...' Matt surmised before she turned to leave with the pie, he was wiping the last of the dishes dry.

Caroline stopped, 'You were listening?'

'I might have been in the vicinity then...I work here remember, like all the time?'

She groaned at his admission unable to form a believable lie, if he's heard...other waitresses might have heard. Great, the living down of her decisions was clearly going to have to park itself for a while then. She looked behind her to make sure the guy was still in the booth waiting patiently for...god knows what. He never orders anything except for drinks once in a while.

Matt noticed her waning interest in their banter and chose a different tact, 'Hey Care, what if the guy in the booth is a hitman...he even looks the part... dark, depressed and a total douche bag with tips?' She whipped around, irrationally irritated with him there was no need to resort to the third degree without her even making a play for the stranger, 'Do me a favour and stop being such a dork okay?'

He wiped his brow clean, clearly annoyed with her now, 'I will, if you stop being such a nympho and coming on to customers.' Not much took her to lose it and this was the epic insult right there waiting for an equally rude comeback.

'Screw you!' She said fighting the urge to jump over the counter and throttle him. Matt could be such an ass sometimes, but before he could mouth possibly the same to her, Alaric Saltzman charged in with an arm load of boxes, hiding from his view both Caroline and Matt, calmly telling them, 'Screwing of any kind is prohibited in the kitchen...it's unhygienic.'

Caroline was not amused, she waited for him to put the boxes down before addressing him, and saw a thin cut on the side of his forehead, leaking blood.

'What the hell happened to you?'

If there was an expression Alaric wasn't associated with it had to be 'a deer caught in headlights', but at that moment he reminded her so much of a man caught in a lie or something similar, she swore he shifted uneasily as Matt and her waited for a legitimate response. He fingered the cut gingerly, almost as if he's been unaware of it until Caroline pointed it out. 'I-i clipped myself with the door...of the car.'

For once Matt and her shared a look of disbelief, while their boss fiddled with more boxes talking about pickles and cheese, which is where he was for the last three hours, getting the cheese and pickles. When he noticed both youths looking at him questioningly he returned a hard look of a boss who would fire their asses in under a minute if they didn't get moving. 'Go tell the guy in the booth we're closing and Matt help with the rest of the boxes...'

She took the pie plate and walked off to the said booth ignoring Matt's parting comment of, 'Don't go home with him or something...' while Alaric demanded a band aid from Matt.

He was handsome; she had to admit in a old fashioned way, dressed in dark brooding tones with a matching expression which didn't scream'come ravage me'. When she approached he was contemplating a large ring on his finger, he didn't sense her come up because he only looked up when Caroline slid the piece of raspberry pie in his direction, he caught it before the plate could slide off the table.

'Nice ring...here, this on the house, it was the last piece of the day...'

He looked at her quizzically, silently observing her forwardness. She didn't introduce herself, maybe he found her behaviour rude? Everyone knew her in Mystic Falls so it was a bit daunting, dealing with a stranger for the first time in a while, a good looking stranger. She sincerely hoped Matt was not eavesdropping on this conversation.

'I promise it's really good, one the grill favourites, I make tons of these, you must be lucky one if you're getting the last piece..'

She felt strangely out of breath at having to explain the creamy goodness of her pies to this man, she did not know if he even liked pie. Maybe he hated pie and thought she was pretentious and rude moron?

Way to go Caroline, great first impressions.

No wonder she often resorted to getting drunk and flashing egotiscal maniacs like Tyler Lockwood .Oh god, another one of those times she wishes she could crawl under a rock and hide. The first and hopefully last time she'd gotten that smashed, her mother truly would have been ashamed of her, she shuddered at the memory, fairly faint in her mind. Thank god Alaric had been there to drag her ass home. But then Tyler Lockwood kept trying to corner her to strike up conversations with her which she'd successfully avoided... till now.

'I'm Caroline...uh we're closing about in a few minutes so...enjoy the pie.' that was her last piece offering before turning around to go, trying hard to absorb the colour that had rapidly blossomed in her cheeks, when she saw him move out of the corner of her eye, he had lifted a small piece on the fork 'Thanks...I'm Stefan'

She turned to give him her two shades brighter, smile. Something mechanical and cold in his eyes changed and he seemed to light up with energy Caroline liked to believe her pie charged him with.

'Are you getting stood up or something because you've been coming here every day, not ordering much and looking like your waiting for someone.' She had said a bit more than she wanted and felt repulsiveness towards her own chronic clumsiness with honesty. The spread of the smile on man's face was gradual like ice breaking, indulgent in its warmth and mystery, revealing nothing.

It was the sort of smile which sad 'oh look what an observant little blonde stalker ...'

He took a long bite of the pie, chewing appreciatively before answering her I'm looking for a friend, I heard he comes in here allot so... I thought I might catch a glimpse of him...maybe surprise him.' The revelation that it was a man, thrilled her to a great extent, she tried her best to hide it. If he noticed her relief he thankfully did not comment on it and continued with measured mouthfuls of pie while she chattered about Mystic Falls being a great place to live if he was planning to live and if not it was a great place to stop over.

Maybe he was indulging a ranting moron but he didn't appear to hate her company, in fact he was encouraging with smiles and murmurs of agreement. Alaric's presence was clearly punctuated by his repetition of 'we are closing now...' in calm dulcet tones, delivered for the benefit of both her and the handsome non-crush.

Caroline started to give a glare, but then relented when she saw Alaric give her a pointed look, and it might have been her imagination but the guy in the booth gave her boss a cold look full of disdain.

It was almost a touch hateful, she doubted Alaric noticed he was busy counting the till, but mystery man's his goodbye was as cordial as his greeting to her.

'I'll see you around Caroline...'

She remained standing at the booth trying her damndest not to look like she was swooning over a complete stranger who could very well be a hitman, like Matt so aptly decided to put it.

Still he had a charming smile, something about it had been inadvertently inviting as much as it had been secretive. Caroline would be lying if she said she didn't want to see that smile again, she hoped she did very soon too.

'I didn't know you loved your job so much Caroline...' Alaric remarked cleverly looking at receipts snapping her out of her apparent drool fest which had even made her boss uncomfortable, 'Maybe you could do me some accounts for me overnight' he added for a better measure, that got her moving because there was never a subject she hated more than accounts or balancing books.

That and then there was Matt's deadpan, 'Please tell me, you didn't throw your number at him...' as he came out of the kitchen, dressed to leave the grill while both Alaric and Caroline rolled their eyes in unison.


	2. Chapter 2

**Red Velvet Cream Pie**

Valentine's Day

At fifteen hundred hours in the grill Caroline donned an apron baking in a perpetual cloud of icing sugar and flour, as if it were the apocalypse and pie was the only thing that would keep people alive. Red velvet cream pie her newest creation of the month, baked like a dark red cake with a creamy white chocolate pudding center was her Valentine day special, it drew in crowds by the spades.

The grill was operating at full capacity tonight with its entire staff in tow, Caroline watched Bonnie Bennett from a distance, she was receiving allot of single male attention tonight, which seemed to please her immensely. Only when it came to giving numbers, she either turned them down or gave them the wrong one. She hardly needed the surplus attention mostly due to the fact that she had a boyfriend already and secondly because most single men that came into the grill were usually scared of Caroline being there server, a revelation she found absolutely uncalled for. Her mannerisms at times honest, bordering on rude were never in any way verbally abusive.

'Is it just me or are we understaffed...' said Bonnie, with her hands firmly on her hips. Alaric brushed past her with an order ticket, 'It's just you, now quit standing like you're in a beauty pageant and get to work.'

Bonnie followed him in the interest of annoying him, something she had mastered over time 'You know sweet talk like that is exactly why you'll never actually have a date.'

Alaric stopped for a minute and smiled beatifically at her before reverting back to a general expression of dismay, 'And thank god for that!...Did table two pay or did you let them slip out like the ones before...'

Bonnie picked up her tray with conviction, as if she were about to throw it at him and bellowed in their boss's direction, 'It only happened ONCE!...'. If he heard, he didn't bother replying. Caroline touched her friend on the shoulder trying to be comforting; Alaric was nothing if not ineffectual at dealing with any young adult drama, not that, that stopped her friend from trying his patience.

'Care?...remind me why i work here again?'

For a moment she failed to see the bright side herself and then remembered she would be out on the street minus his general attitude, 'Because he pays us over time?' Bonnie thought for a moment and then huffed in agreement and pushed her dark curls back.

Lights in the grill were a dim haze tonight as candles provided the most form of illumination, courtesy Valentine's Day and all its drama, glossy crimson coloured paper hearts and cupid wings were floating from the ceiling like a half hearted attempt to embrace a holiday driven by love. There were irritated glares from Alaric once in a while when he poured drinks or took orders almost as if the cardboard cupid cherubs and he were in a staring contest.

Caroline lit another tea light for a teenage couple in throes of passion; they seemed more interested in eating each others face rather than taking a seat. She was tempted to prompt them to get a room but realized it might not be the best suggestion to give on a night like this. Her mother might have to haul their immature asses out of some sleazy motel while she herself fluffed pillows in her friend, Bonnie's home.

Zipping her suggestions, she took their orders and headed to the bar where Alaric was trying to look manly amid all the fluffery around him, he saw her come up and talked while looking at the fledgling couple 'I hope you were nothing like this when you were a teenager?'

If possible there make session had intensified to the extent of awkwardness, Caroline winced turning her back on the maudlin display and let a wry smile cover her exhausted features. 'Well, just take comfort in the fact that I am a grown up now, and I know that every smoochfest isn't the last one I'm going to have on this earth.' That earned her more of a disapproving than comforted look from her boss and he handed her another tray of beers to serve a table of jocks, she knew some of them were Tyler Lockwood's buddies and this deterred her from performing her duties as a cordial, well spoken server. Snide remarks just slipped unchecked.

'So what do you guys want, its Valentine's Day...not celebrate the stereotypes day?'

They looked up from her chest in unison, with mouths curling in sneers. Mike the snarkiest in the group spoke up unzipping his jersey loudly for effect, 'This coming from a blonde cup cake, who dropped out of college and used to be a cheerleader...you know, maybe it is celebrate the stereotypes day.'

Caroline bit back a mommy insult and tried chewing her gum loudly for a change, because she really had stepped into that one, that and Alaric promised to fire her if she got into another fight at the grill. People complained about her more than often, people tended to be a pain in the ass around here; it was all she could do not smother them in some pastry flour, the really good quality kind.

'I'm sure your ring leader would be proud of you for that reply, where is he tonight...tarnishing some other poor soul's reputation i'm guessing?'

Another one of them spoke up 'Didn't you know, someone killed his brother Jeremy.' That she hadn't known, the info stopped her short not knowing what to say in return. Matt came up behind her suddenly, startling her, because he almost never came out of the kitchen, 'Hey, these guys bothering you?...', he said, tone dangerously low, the cross of his arms speaking volumes of his dislike for them.

Mike did a dramatically fake skimming of the menu and looked to Caroline with an almost polite smile then completely ignoring Matt, 'We'll have the pie of the day...'

Before she could retrieve their menus, Matt calmly told them to their languid demeanours, 'Sorry boys, we're fresh out of pies...don't let the door hit you on your way out.' As a general rule she wouldn't mind not serving five rude jocks who thought they owned rights to ogling and sniggering over half the women in town because it struck their fancy, but the grill had a business to run and Matt was getting rid of paying customers which was probably not good either because Alaric might have an aneurysm about it.

Incredibly, the jocks filed out of the booth one by one, giving Matt murderous looks, maybe it was because Matt used to be a part of this crowd and by some form of grudging code of respect they obeyed him. Mike was the last one to leave the booth giving Caroline a long dirty look, muttering under his breath before he was out of earshot of either of them, 'Yeah, i bet you even got the last piece Donovan.'

She didn't have much time to form a retort to that because Matt lunged at him before he got out the door; both of them went sailing down to the hard wood floor, rolling with deft punches and kicks. Mike's other friends joined in the brawl like it was the Valentine's Day sweepstakes.

'Ric!, ...table nine!, fight!...it wasn't me!'.

* * *

Her mother and she shared a briefly uncomfortable encounter under the watchful gaze of Alaric until another unrelated fight broke.

There were many times Caroline would have liked to hide from the rest of the world, but knowing she might not survive the resulting knock to her ego, she usually let the idea slide her by. Tonight had been one of those days ...err nights. She sat trying to help Matt clean up a bloody nose; since he refused going to the emergency and having his nose looked at. Mike and the rest of his friends was ear dragged out the grill by her mother the sheriff and if there was one thing Liz Forbes knew how to do, it was ear dragging out the door...with varying degrees of threats.

Eventually the crowd of teenagers thinned out as Alaric announced he was closing the grill early. While the sheriff's deputies collated the last of the statements from the rosy cheeked to the barely coherent, Caroline silently sulked behind the counter not knowing what to do with herself other than repeatedly clean the counter to a gleaming shine, she could practically see the frown lines on her face in the reflection.

Alaric joined her behind the counter feigning interest in something other than the waning customers 'You rub that counter anymore and it'll expect you to buy it breakfast next morning...' She ignored him all the while heeding his warning, watching her mother in action; it had been a few months since they've run into each other. She's been that good in avoiding her only surviving parent, which would come across as mean and she could see why people in town might have a slightly skewed perspective on her personality but keeping a relationship with her mother was no walk in the park.

They had too much to fight about.

Her boss ever the perceptive, seemed to have read her mind or at least he pretended to, 'You should get out of here...I'll close tonight, seeing how the sheriff's still haranguing people out there.'

'Hmmm...What's all the noise about? Matt only knocked that Mike kid around a bit and he isn't even as banged up as our retarded cousin?'

'I told you nothing good can come out of putting up those weird cherubs in the grill, Valentine's Day is cursed in this town, no wonder someone else bit the dust tonight '

'As opposed to what other day in this town and who the hell got killed now!?'

'Mayor Lockwood's Valentine.' announced Alaric grimly.

She stared at him incredulously 'Oh shit, Mrs. Lockwood?', Alaric shook his head, 'No the Mayor's mistress, some other young founding family member.'

At first she didn't realize he wasn't joking but then felt a slight surge of sympathy for Tyler Lockwood even if he was a bigger jerk than Mike and then unbidden, a very three dimensional image of his father doing the drunk rhapsody with a young blonde flashed in her mind, she shuddered visibly, 'Oh, well...ewww.'

* * *

She left Alaric to his own grumbling devices after he told her with not so much subtlety to take a stab at patching things up with her mother by taking a ride home with her. Well, her current home which was Bonnie's home and she only owned a small bedroom in, she politely told him to mind his own beeswax because she already knew the results of a heart to heart, it usually went something like this; 'I know you're unhappy with my choices but it's my life and I'm grown up enough to live it the way i want to.', 'Caroline you can do so much better than this, why are you limiting yourself?, how are you going to survive on a waitress salary?.'

At some point during her rant Alaric asked if she had a bone in her body that wasn't completely cynical, she only patted him on his back for his good intentions and went to meet Bonnie while she was changing out of her uniform.

It was a chilly night and Caroline hadn't brought a jacket, she ignored Bonnie looking positively warm in her sweater when they started their short walk home.

'You know, Alaric's right? ...it's been a while now...you guys should patch up.'

That only earned her a raised eyebrow from Caroline, maybe the cold was making her irate but she had an urge to tell Bonnie to shut it, she fought the urge and groaned inwardly at everyone's sudden interest in her problems, she was no where nearly drunk enough to have this conversation, so she quickly changed the topic. 'Hey, why didn't i know Mayor Lockwood had a mistress? Where the hell am I usually when these things come out?'

Her friend flashed a bright smile in her direction, 'The oven...baking?' Of course, damn, she needed to get out more...on a date more like, where was the window booth guy when you needed him?

She let the disappointment of him not showing on Valentine's day finally settle in and bother like it should not have, they've had a few friendly conversations mostly when she was serving, it wasn't as if he had hinted at wanting a relationship with her...yet, and she had decided not to be too forward this time and let time decide their ...whatever it was you call sly looks in each other directions these days.

Bonnie carried on unaware of Caroline's grumpy disposition at being somewhat stood up, even though she hadn't even been asked out by the intense stranger yet.

'You know i wouldn't be surprised if Mayor Lockwood is the killer...'

Caroline sighed, Bonnie had a skewed Nancy Drew streak in her which reared its head whenever a death occurred in town, seeing as how small Mystic Falls was, death of any kind was gossip for her, 'And what pray tell makes you say that?'

Bonnie turned around now, walking backwards, 'Think about it, both his son and his mistress die in under a week? There must a weird reason for it...plus i heard he's a real hard ass.'

Caroline smiled in the dark quickening her steps feeling a little sheepish as refusing Alaric's offer for a ride home. Usually Matt was the one they went home with but he went home early after Alaric chewed him out for trying to impress Elena Gilbert with the brawl, 'Bonnie, our boss is a hard ass... doesn't make him a killer.' That put as frown on her friends delicate features, she whipped around unhappily. 'Then what's your great guess?'

She was about to say that if she was the sheriff, she would list potential suspects as someone new in town, because of the sudden rash of unexplained deaths which were listed as animal attacks or mysterious causes, but knew as soon as she said it Bonnie would point out the only new person to come in town since well...forever.

Stefan, The window booth guy, and she hated to even think of him having something to do with any of these deaths but logic dictated that the new mysterious guy must have some strange intentions because the moment he showed up people started dying. Just as she opened her mouth to tell Bonnie she was really tired and speculating about their towns resident killer was giving her a headache, large lights flooded behind them.

A black sedan crept up next to Caroline and Bonnie with the driver's side window rolled down. A pair of piercing blue eyes peered at them meaningfully, Caroline felt Bonnie tense up next to her, they knew practically everyone in town, nightly out of town visitors were always susceptible to a degree of mistrust, Maybe they were just tired but his charming smile failed to garner a response from either girl.

'Hey, Can either of you lovely ladies point me to the grill?'

Bonnie pointed behind them, 'Right behind us, if you keep going straight you'll see it on your right... except we closed early tonight.' Caroline silently regarded the perpetual wry smile on his face as he watched her intently, there was something unmistakably unnerving about the quippy smile, she wanted to get home and soak in the tub for as long as she could.

His tone remained unchanged, something told her he was not interested in the grill at all, 'That's too bad, I bet you ladies know everyone who comes in..?'

The question was directed at her, she felt his eyes boring into her demanding some sort of submission, and she shook it off. 'Maybe, who are you looking for?'

His eyes traveled a fraction to Bonnie and then back to her, smile still in place, 'A friend...it's Okay I'll find him, it's going to be a surprise...', he said not giving away much.

It was the same thing her crush had said to her except that his demeanor was less shifty and more mysterious, she was tempted to ask if he was talking about Stefan Salvatore but decided not to give in to her curiosity because there was something determined in this guy's expression and surprising a friend in a good way seemed like the last thing on his mind.

He revved up the engine and sped away in a cloud of darkness leaving both of them in silence which Bonnie broke first by saying, 'He was cute...'

Caroline thought about the strange grin, the murders in their town and wondered if she should leave the sheriff an anonymous note about her half baked theory.

* * *

A/n: Hey LaLa thanks for the review means allot that someone reviewed, i know it a lame story so far but I'm working on it and hopefully it will get better. And thanks to all those who have it as their fav and on their alert list.


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